Sergeant, John2016-03-092016-03-092006http://hdl.handle.net/11603/2463From the Faculty Nominator: This article, written by John Sergeant was the result of a student/faculty collaborative research effort during Summer-2005. I was the supervising professor. John is mathematics major but has a strong physics background; therefore, I accepted his collaborative research proposal regarding “Nano-Composites and Mechanical Alloying via the Ball Milling Technique.” John and I worked closely and interacted daily for ten weeks during the summer of 2005 while he worked in my experimental condensed physics laboratory at Goucher College. We had a lunch meeting every day, where we effectively discussed his progress and I subsequently made suggestions regarding his continuing efforts. John completed a literature analysis at the beginning of the summer and read many articles in this field before and during the data collection period. During the last two weeks of the research period, while he was writing this article, we engaged in several iterations and corrections. John presented two poster presentations—summarizing his results—at Accepted applicants’ day in Fall-2005 and Alumni weekend in April 2006. After three informal oral presentations on campus, he delivered a clear and concise oral presentation at the NCUR (National Conference for Undergraduate Research) in Ashville, NC in April 2006. His paper has also been accepted with minor formatting corrections to be published in the NCUR Proceedings. Publication in Goucher’s online collaborative publications journal, Verge, was yet another achievement for John, and I wish him the best upon his graduation from Goucher in May 2006.The ball milling technique has been utilized to produce nano-composites and to ascertain the fundamental parameters of the mechanochemical reaction and the mechanical alloying process. This is an innovative method of material synthesis and metallic coating that, compared to the current methods, is very costeffective and environmentally friendly, although it has not been thoroughly analyzed. There are some general understandings of mechanical alloying, founded on the basic thermodynamics of the reaction, that have been widely accepted. These include heat energy generated by both the collisions between steel balls and the walls of the container and also between the balls themselves, heat transfer by the walls of the container, and heat absorbed by the layer of powder caught between the colliding surfaces. There are many fundamental parameters that require further study. Some parameters that have been investigated here include time of ignition or time of mechanchemical reaction; temperature change; and change of ignition time with respect to mass and number of steel balls, as well as with respect to powder mass. These theoretical parameters have been investigated and confirmed through experimental data. Knowledge of the fundamental parameters in turn helps the understanding of the ball milling process.8 p.en-USCollection may be protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. To obtain information or permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Goucher Special Collections & Archives at 410-337-6347 or email archives@goucher.edu.Research -- Periodicals.Humanities -- Research -- Periodicals.Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals.Text